Multnomah Falls in Oregon, just off the Columbia River Highway, is definitely worth getting out of your car and walking up to. There’s a pedestrian underpass that allows people to cross to the other side of the road, where there’s the stunning sight of the waterfall and the Multnomah Falls Historic Lodge. I could go on and on about how majestic Multnomah Falls is, or I could just let these photos speak for themselves:

The Lodge doesn’t offer overnight stays, but they do have a restaurant, visitor center, and gift shop. You can get maps for the trails here and stop in for Eggs Benedict after your hike. They even host weddings there at the Falls.

It was nice to see the Columbia River at sunset when we first arrived at Portland, and then to be able to see it illuminated in a slightly different way on the morning we took off. We were sad saying goodbye to the river, to the green forests, and even to the humidity. Leaving the river meant we were officially heading out of Oregon. From the point that one leave the river until reaching the border of Idaho, the scenery rapidly become more and more similar to Idaho’s farmland. We said our goodbyes to Oregon as we passed the “Come Back Soon” sign. We will, Oregon. We will.

Just crossing over the Oregon-Idaho border, I mentioned to Chris how it smelled so much like cooking french fries. And then we noticed the Ore-Ida factory just out our window. Can you imagine working there? You would come home from work smelling like fries everyday. Until this trip, I didn’t realize the name “Ore-Ida” had to do with the fact that they are located between the two states. That is a giant steam cloud of french fry emissions coming from the factory:

We passed through a lot of different small towns in Idaho along the highway. One of them – Bliss, Idaho – was the least blissful town we encountered. A place that looked all but abandoned, so we were glad we had no plans to stay there. There were hotels that looked dilapidated, but were still offering rooms for $48 a night. Their convenience store was even called “Stinker.”

Our destination for the day was Twin Falls. The city boasts several major waterfalls, but Idaho is so flat that we started to wonder where in the state these “waterfalls” could even be falling from. Then, just as we were entering Twin Falls, it was as though the Earth around us completely fell away, and there was a canyon on each side of us. The Snake River Canyon is wild! It was already sunset as we were coming in, so I was racing against time to get any photos of the impressive canyon. I did manage to capture the sunset over the canyon:

While we were in Oregon, we had booked our hotel for the one night we planned to spend in Twin Falls. We were a little worried that the motel might really just be a dump or a scam. The photos looked way too nice and polished, like they were stock images. When we arrived, I waited in the car while Chris investigated. Going inside, he told me, it felt more like a slick doctor’s office than a hotel/motel lobby. They had a big glass tray of chocolate chip cookies for each guest who signed in to take. The lady at the counter was the same one in the photos online.

She was there, just like in the picture, smiling at the counter and offering cookies to everyone who was checking in!

This was our room for the night. You can see the bedroom reflected in the mirror. The room was exactly like the photos, too! Unbelievably clean and with really chic decorations. They called it a “boutique” style motel and I can understand why. We felt as though we were in an upscale apartment with all the trendy boutique furniture. Blue Lakes Inn is the place to stay in Twin Falls. It is everything one could want in a motel room and it is extremely affordable. They did a brilliant job in fixing this place up!

It was already late so we grabbed a bite a Chick-fil-A. Neither of us had ever eaten at one and we weren’t impressed. What a boring menu to pick from! The sandwiches were mediocre at best and the sauces were extremely sweet and artificial tasting. The guy at the counter was frighteningly chipper and insisted on giving us way more sauces than we wanted. More than once, he exclaimed, “I love my job!” When we asked about the taste of the sauces, he began waxing poetic about each of them as though they were beyond human description. He might have been butt-kissing his manager, he was new on the job, or we just stepped into the Twilight Zone somewhere in Idaho. I appreciate friendly service, but there is a fine line between friendly and Woah! Take it down a few notches, you psychopath!

After that, we returned to our picture-perfect room and went to bed.

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